Circle K Stores
Careers at Circle K Stores
MISSION
Circle K Stores Inc (“Circle K”) seeks to provide efficient and reliable convenience store operations to customers, making it easy for consumers in its operating markets to access essential household and food items easily.
FOUNDING STORY
Circle K traces its roots back to 1951 when Fred Hervey purchased three Kay’s Food Stores in El Paso, Texas.
The Company expanded its operations over the following years, expanding its store network across the southwestern US, opening locations in the neighbouring states of New Mexico and Arizona.
Circle K continued to expand its operations in the 1960s and 1970s, making a number of key strategic acquisitions which were incorporated in the Circle K brand.
By 1975, Circle K operated around 1,000 stores across the US. The Company expanded into its first international market in 1979 via a licensing agreement which gave the Company a presence in Japan.
In 1999, Circle K introduced a franchise program, under which the Company’s network continued to expand during the early 2000s.
In 2003, Circle K was acquired by Canadian convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard, under the influence of which the Company has continued to expand its operations significantly.
Alimentation Couche-Tard is in the process of rebranding its own international network of stores under the Circle K brand, with the exception if its locations in Canada, which will retain the Alimentation Couche-Tard name.
Alimentation Couche-Tard currently operates more than 16,000 store locations across markets in North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe.
Since 2016, the company has rebranded more than 6,000 stores under the Circle K name.
Business model of Circle K Stores
Customer Segments
Circle K serves a range of customers through its network of convenience stores.
The Company targets a broad base of general consumers that includes customers in the following demographics:
- Motorists, comprising drovers who take advantage of Circle K’s fuel sale services, vehicle cleaning services, and convenient roadside locations;
- Urban Consumers, comprising consumers located in larger metropolitan areas and cities who enjoy the convenience and efficiency of shopping at Circle K stores;
- Busy Professionals, including workers from a broad range of industries who have little time to shop at more traditional supermarket chains or prepare meals for themselves, taking advantage of Circle K’s numerous snack, coffee, and food options;
- Students and Low-Income Workers, comprising younger consumers and lower-income workers who take advantage of Circle K’s cheaper products; and
- Families, including families with young children to whom Circle K’s various branded promotions, and snack and beverage products are particularly appealing.
The Circle K is now synonymous with the operations of Alimentation Couche-Tard.
The latter company is in the process of rebranding its stores under the Circle K name.
Alimentation Couche-Tard currently operates more than 16,000 stores across North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe.
Value Propositions
Circle K provides value to its customers in the following ways:
- Brand Strength and Reputation – The Circle K name is one of the most recognisable convenience store brands in the world, the Company having a positive reputation as a reliable and efficient operator that dates back as far as the 1950s;
- International Sales Reach – Circle K, under the leadership of Alimentation Couche-Tard, operates an extensive network of more than 16,000 stores across North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe, ensuring that it is able to reach as large a consumer base as possible;
- Convenience and Accessibility – Circle K situates its retail locations in or close to metropolitan areas to ensure that its stores are easy for consumers to reach and access, it also operates a mobile app, and easy-pay card systems, and offer gift cards to make the shopping experience more efficient and convenient;
- Customer Service – Circle K provides its customers with excellent customer service, its staff aiming to provide friendly, in-person assistance to customers and a pleasant shopping experience;
- Product Range – Circle K offers a wide range of products to customers, including drinks , snacks, fresh food, coffee, basic household goods, and other items, ensuring that it is able to meet the needs of its target customer base.
Channels
Circle K serves customers through its network of convenience stores.
The Company’s operations and brand name are being merged into the convenience store operations of its parent company Alimentation Couche-Tard, which is rebranding the bulk of its stores under the Circle K name.
Alimentation Couche-Tard operates and licenses 12,740 company-operated and franchised convenience stores across North America.
The company additionally operates more than 2,000 locations across Asia Pacific under licensing agreements, and supplies road transportation fuel to 1,300 outlets in the UIS. This brings the total network to around 16,000.
Customer Relationships
Circle offers its products to customers on a largely self-service basis through its physical retail locations. Customers are served in-store by the Company’s sales and service personnel, who sell products to customers directly.
The company seeks to establish longstanding relationships with its customers, by offering and convenient, efficient and pleasant shopping experience.
Circle K operates a website at www.circlek.com, through which it provides information on a self-service basis, including information pertaining to its operating locations, its products and services, and its corporate structure.
The Company additionally operates a rewards and benefits system, accessed via a mobile app, through which consumers are able to access deals, discounts, and rewards. The Company additionally operates an easy pay card service that enables customers to make payments at collect rewards at Circle K locations.
Circle K additionally operates a number of social media accounts – including with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – through which it interacts directly with consumers, providing updates and handling customer queries and complaints.
Key Activities
Circle K operates a network of convenience stores across North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe.
The Company is a subsidiary of Canadian convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard, which operates more than 16,000 stores around the world, and is in the process of rebranding the bulk of its network under the Circle K name.
Circle K stores typically provide a wide range of products to its customers, including fuel and oil products, a range of snacks and beverages, fresh food items, and basic household goods. The Company also provides vehicle cleaning services.
Circle K was founded in 1951 and is based in Tempe, Arizona with additional locations in Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Colorado, Georgia, Texas, California, Michigan, and Illinois.
Key Partners
Circle K works in close cooperation with a wide network of partner companies and organisations across its operating markets.
These partners can be organised broadly into the following categories:
- Supplier and Vendor Partners, comprising suppliers of snack and beverage products, fuel products, and other merchandise that are sold across the Company’s network of convenience store outlets, as well as third party providers of services that support the Company’s corporate operations more broadly;
- Franchise Partners, comprising various commercial enterprises, independent business owners, and other organisations that operate convenience stores under the Circle K brand in partnership with or on behalf of the Company;
- Service Partners, comprising a range of companies that provide services on behalf of Circle, notably including operators of quick charging sites for electric vehicles across Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Ireland;
- Branding and Marketing Partners, comprising various brands, companies, and organisations that collaborate with Circle K and its parent company on co-branding, marketing, and business development projects; and
- Strategic Partners, comprising other commercial enterprises and organisations with which the Company collaborates on strategic business development, marketing, and other business projects.
Circle K has a number of partnerships in place. This includes a partnership with Mid-Atlantic Convenience Stores, JD.com, Empire Petroleum Partners, Europcar, and DHL Express.
Key Resources
Circle K’s business model depends on its ability to serve customers quickly and efficiently.
As such, the Company’s key resources are brand name and intellectual properties, its products and inventory, its supply chain and distribution infrastructure, its network of partners, its network of physical retail locations, and its personnel.
Most key to the Company’s operations are the products its offers and its network of retail outlets, which, in partnership with its parent company, number more than 16,000 across north America, Asia Pacific, and Europe.
Cost Structure
Circle K incurs costs in relation to the acquisition of fuel and merchandise, the procurement of third party services, the operation of its network of outlets – including utility and occupancy costs, the management of its distribution and logistics infrastructure, the development and maintenance of its online store and IT infrastructure, the implementation of marketing and advertising campaigns, the payment of salaries and benefits to its personnel, and the management of its partnerships.
Revenue Streams
Circle generates revenue through the operation of an international network of convenience store locations across North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe.
The Company derives its revenue primarily in the form of sales fees collected directly from customers at point of sale.
This includes the sales of fuel, snacks, beverages, and other convenience store products, as well as the provision of services, such as vehicle cleaning. The Company additionally collects franchise fees from its franchise partners.
As noted above, Circle K operates as a subsidiary of Alimentation Couche-Tard.
In 2018, Alimentation Couche-Tard generated annual revenue of USD 51.39 billion, up on the USD 37.90 billion recorded by the Company in 2017.
The bulk of the company’s revenue, around USD 37.12 billion, was generated though the sale of fuel and related products.
Our team
info: Brian Hannasch (“Hannasch”) has served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Alimentation Couche-Tard since September 2014. Since Alimentation Couche-Tard’s oversees the operations of Circle K, Hannasch is responsible for overseeing and implementing the overall strategic direction and growth strategies of Circle K. Hannasch began his career in 1998, when he joined Amoco. He held a number of roles at the company over a period of 11 years, including a spell as a manager. In 1998, he joined BP, where he rose through the company’s management ranks to the position of Vice President by 2000. Prior to assuming his current position, Hannasch served from 2009 as Chief Operating Officer at Circle K, in which role he is responsible for the chains’ overall day-to-day operations.
info: Deborah Hall Lefevre (“Lefevre”) has served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Alimentation Couche-Tard since April 2017. She is responsible for leading the information technology and digital operations of Circle K and its parent company Alimentation Couche-Tard. Lefevre began her career with Motorola in 1989 as a programmer analyst. She went on to hold a number of roles at the company , including spells as a senior project manager and a senior manager, over a period of 13 years. Lefevre was appointed Senior Director of IT Strategy, Planning, and Business Intelligence at McDonald’s in 2001. She worked at McDonald’s for 16 years, during which time she held a number of senior leadership positions, including spells as Vice President of IT Enterprise, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at McDonald’s USA, and Corporate Vice President of Global Enterprise and Business Transformation.
info: Kathleen K. Cunnington (“Cunnington”) has served as Senior Vice President of Global Shared Services at Circle K since January 2018. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing the accounting and information technology services across of the Company’s global sites. Cunnington first joined Circle K in 2003 as an operations accounting manager. She has since held several senior leadership positions, including spells as Director of Finance, Vice President of Administration and Benchmarking, and Vice President of Shared Services North America. Cunnington began her career as a senior accountant at professional services firm Ernst and Young between 1989 and 1991. Later in 1991, she assumed the same role at PricewaterhouseCoopers, a role she held for ten months before joining Lexmark International Inc as an internal auditor in 1992. Prior to joining Circle K, Cunnington served for more than eight years as assistant controller at Kiel Bros Oil Co. Inc.
